Lincoln Electric Park

Lincoln Electric Park was the only amusement park in the Kansas City area fully available to African Americans in the early twentieth century. Not only did it provide a needed escape from reality for many, but additionally it hosted many famous performers and bands.

The park opened May 15, 1915 and operated through 1919. It was started by a group of real estate and construction investors including, George H. Seidhoff, Louis Hector and Earl Ridge. The site featured a main pavilion designed by the prominent architecture firm of Smith, Rea & Lovitt, and a Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, high dive, theatre, band stand and “Everything to Make People Happy and forget Life’s Troubles.” While the group that started the venture were white, they offered shares in the profits to the local African American population and in its last two years of operation, it was managed by African Americans.

The park was built to serve the over 35,000 African Americans in Kansas City, who were not allowed at the other similar "trolley parks" or parks with attractions, including Fairmount Park, the second Electric Park near Brush Creek and Paseo, Carnival Park in Kansas City, KS,  and Winnwood Beach.  The population only had limited privileges at Swope Park and access to tennis courts along the Paseo.  And on the opening weekend of the park, over 8,500 people attended and listened to talented musicians under the direction of bandmaster Major N. Clark Smith.

The park last appears in the 1919 City Directory. You can see the band stand and some of the pavilion in the 1922 aerial, but all the other structures were dismantled or demolished by this time and by 1925, all the structures were gone.  While short lived, the park provided a needed respite to the African American Community and also provided a venue for talented entertainers and musicians in the African American Community. 

Content provided by Logan Thompson